


Smoke Before the Flames

by ideallyqualia



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, F/F, Pre-Relationship, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 02:13:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12571440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: Witch Kiyoko is the only one willing to sacrifice something to rescue princess Yachi.





	Smoke Before the Flames

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pugglemuggle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugglemuggle/gifts).



Kiyoko didn't know what to expect when she accepted her job request. She wasn't an experienced witch, she only knew the most basic magic theory, but she needed the money, and the request paid well and didn't have many people willing to do it. Only two other people were listed as help on the the magic network of a tree trunk that served as the job bulletin; not much competition.

The job: rescue witch princess Yachi Hitoka. She was last seen on a mountain outside the castle town, and she hadn't been seen in weeks. With a family as big as the royal family, she was the youngest and lowest priority of everything on their plate. The royal guard had apparently already tried and failed several times.

Kiyoko packed a bag of supplies. Anything could go wrong, but she couldn't splurge on supplies when she didn't have much money to begin with, so she chose only the most basic necessities she already had. Everything else, she reasoned, could be solved with her also-basic magic. She locked the door to her village home and headed out.

After a few hours of walking she checked the bulletin again, stopping at an ordinary tree to summon it. The same two people were still on the job: Haiba Alisa and Tanaka Saeko. She inscribed her own name under theirs, activating ink magic and tipping her fingers in it until she was done. She forgot her pen at home so she could only write her name in a messy scribble.

The journey consumed the entire day, and when Kiyoko finally found herself at the bottom of the mountain, the sun was beneath the horizon. She had to rely on a small lantern produced from her bag, the only one that could fit in it.

She heard loud laughter coming from one direction. Low green light illuminated some of the bushes there, the same kind of light coming from Kiyoko's lantern. She quietly approached, and when she swept aside a few tree branches blocking the way, she stumbled into a clearing of trees, bright moonlight streaming down from above, and two women sitting on the floor. One of them squawked and cut her off her laughter.

Kiyoko came to a standstill. "Ah, are you here for the princess request?" she asked, her throat going dry at the silence that her presence brought.

"Oh, you're actually trying to do it?" one of the women asked. "Good luck!" She lifted a canteen from the ground and raised it to the air as if she was giving a toast or a cheer.

"Don't mind her. She's just glad we finally got out of that cave Yachi's in."

"You...you found her? Where is she?" Kiyoko asked.

"We couldn't bring her, unfortunately." The woman extended her hand. "You probably saw our names on the request's help list. I'm Haiba Alisa."

Kiyoko shook her hand numbly, intimidated at the thought that witches older than her couldn't save Yachi from whatever it was detaining her.

"There's a curse on the cave," the other woman, Saeko, said. "Which would've been _helpful_ to know, but it was never included in the request. It's probably why everyone's stopped trying to rescue her."

"Someone cursed her?" Kiyoko asked.

"No. I'm sure it's just one of those ancient curses that accumulated so much negative energy that it warped itself into a huge problem." Saeko grabbed a lantern and stood up, raising the light so she could see Kiyoko's face better. "Anyway, nothing's actually happened to Yachi, she's fine. It's just that, it's a curse that turns people into dragons. I think it used to be a dragon's cave."

Kiyoko sunk further on the spot. "Is Yachi a dragon?"

"No."

"No? What else could happen?"

"You could turn into one, for example." Saeko patted her lantern. "I'm so glad we didn't bring fire lanterns after all. That would just make a mess with a dragon curse around."

"Speaking of which, is your lantern going to last?" Alisa asked.

Kiyoko didn't want to look down at her own lantern after noticing theirs, but she couldn't ignore it any longer after Alisa pointed it out. Kiyoko could only keep grass alive in her magic lantern; hers was filled with a weak glow. Alisa and Saeko's lanterns cultivated blooming flowers and all the light that entailed.

"I'm planning on going to sleep soon," Kiyoko said.

"Stay with us, then! We're not budging until morning."

Saeko attached her lantern to a branch and sat back down. "I'm so tired," she complained as she crossed her legs, drooping forward.

Kiyoko took it as a chance to unpack her backpack and dig for her food. She nibbled at a sandwich, contemplating the cave ahead.

"What exactly happens when you try to approach it?" Kiyoko asked in the middle of dinner.

"You turn into a dragon. Don't worry, it's a big cave, you'll fit," Saeko said.

"That's not what I'm worried about."

"We could hear Yachi inside," Alisa admitted. "She sounded fine, but she said she couldn't leave. She tried stepping out of the cave to show us and some part of the curse held her back."

"Oh. And you couldn't think of anything to purify the curse?"

"No. We've been here for a few days now. We gave up today, and tomorrow we're going back home." Alisa's eyes glittered, and she turned to a tree with her hands full of magic. "I should cross our names off before I forget."

The conversation died as Kiyoko ran out of things to ask them about the job, and Alisa and Saeko started talking to each other. Kiyoko smiled. Even if she couldn't think of a thing to say, they were close friends, and being close to that kind of friendship made the woods less lonely for the night.

In the morning they shared breakfast and goodbyes with her. Kiyoko doubted she'd see them again, and that realization came with a quiet pang, but it was buried under the fear that Kiyoko had accepted too big a job for herself.

She came to the dragon's cave and stopped in front of it. Saeko and Alisa had given her directions before they left, so she knew where it was, even if it looked the same as the other caves of the mountain, but completely self-imposed pressure rooted her feet to the floor.

"Is someone there?" a small voice asked from within.

"Yes, I'm here," Kiyoko answered quickly. "Your family sent me to find you." She glanced around the cave mouth for any traces of magic, and right away she noticed a small trace of a curse lingering in the rock.

"You're a witch, too. I can tell. So many witches have been coming to try to get me out. I don't know why."

"You're..." Kiyoko frowned. "Don't you want to be found?"

"I do! I want to go home!" Yachi cried. "It's just so weird that everyone that's been coming are witches. No one else. And, they're all so pretty too, why do they keep coming?" she finished quietly.

"I don't think any other type of person wants to go into a cave," Kiyoko explained. "In case a curse or magic animal was holding you, magic would work best, and not a lot of magic types can work in a cave without causing a cave-in or other disaster." Kiyoko glanced down at her lantern. She was terrible at plant magic, but it already didn't have much to offer in a sunless place like a deep cave, so it didn't matter.

"You sound like you know what to do! Does this mean you can help me?!"

"I'll try," Kiyoko said without any promises. "I saw the two witches that tried to come yesterday. They told me you can't step outside. Can you try that again, please?"

Someone's head poked out from behind a boulder in the cave. "There's something in the air right there," Yachi said as she pointed at the entrance. She didn't step into complete view, her mouth was hidden, and some of her voice was muffled.

"I'm going to need you to try."

Yachi crept forward. The weak gait struck Kiyoko as alarming, and she dug into her bag for the first piece of food she could find.

"Are you alright? Are you hungry?" Kiyoko asked.

"No I'm fine! I mean I'm fine, no!" Yachi pushed Kiyoko's hand away. "I just don't want to do this again for the 10th or 20th time."

Yachi's gaze lingered on the boulder she left behind, and Kiyoko noticed that her walking had the same hesitation.

"It doesn't hurt trying to leave, does it?"

"Well...no? But it's really uncomfortable." Yachi braced herself and reached for the entrance with her hands for a demonstration. Immediately her hands were deflected.

"Oh," Kiyoko said.

"It almost feels like a slap." Yachi backed away. "Do you have any ideas?"

"No, not really," Kiyoko admitted. Yachi's face fell. "Let me try a few things before I call myself lost." She opened her bag and lowered it to the floor to begin exploring the contents and setting everything aside for what she wanted to try.

Half an hour later, Kiyoko wasn't any further from where she started. She had tried every purification spell she knew, and several other spells besides, and nothing helped.

Yachi sat on the floor, sliding down with a dejected thump. "I'm stuck," she said with an empty voice, like it was her first time noticing, or the first time she wrapped her head around the realization.

"I'm not done. It's a dragon's curse, right? And a transformation one? Step back, I need to see what'll happen if I step in."

"Okay." Yachi relocated herself a safe distance away. Kiyoko trusted her judgment, she was the one who knew how big a dragon she'd become.

Kiyoko pushed her belongings safely away, too, and went into the cave. At the first step past the not-barrier she felt a small hot shock run through her back, and in the next instant, her line of sight rocketed. Yachi craned her neck back to look at her.

"Ah, uh, umm... Miss...?"

"Shimizu," Kiyoko said, her voice a rasp from being unfamiliar with a dragon's body. She cleared her throat and tried again, "Shimizu Kiyoko."

"Shimizu? Shimizu! Are you okay?!" Yachi scrambled to rush back to her, and she nearly fell. She caught herself on her hands and shoved herself back up.

"I'm fine." Kiyoko regarded her feet with a long look, and then stepped back and forth to test them.

Yachi waited with her hands clasped together.

"Can you try crossing again? I might see or feel something from this side," Kiyoko said.

Yachi masked her reluctance under a barely contained frown as she reached for it again. She misjudged the distance and stumbled, and then fell on her face. She reacted with a delayed shriek.

Kiyoko herself wobbled as she lowered her head. "Can you move? Forward?"

Yachi shakily grasped for a clump of grass in front of her. She pulled herself up and took a few steps. "I'm out of the cave!" she exclaimed, waving her arms in enthusiasm.

Kiyoko went to walk past the barrier, too. Nothing happened. Yachi wilted, and Kiyoko stared at her.

"It's fine," Kiyoko said. "This is going to be fine. Don't come back inside in case something else happens. Let me inspect the cave."

Kiyoko disappeared inside for several hours, checking every instance of magic for clues. She reappeared with a dismayed creak in her jaw.

"I couldn't find anything," she confessed.

"I can't go back like this! I can't make you suffer. You're a complete stranger." Yachi gestured back at the cave, her hand half-hearted. "Go...go inside, I'll help you turn back."

"You don't have to do that, Yachi."

"Yes I do. Being stuck as a dragon is just as bad as being stuck in a cave." Yachi withdrew her hand.

"No it's not. And I'm the one who's stuck as a dragon, I would know." Kiyoko walked slowly away from the cave, going in a large circle. "It doesn't look like I'm physically bound at all."

Yachi continued to fidget. She wasn't huddling in a corner like before, so she wasn't afraid anymore, but Kiyoko knew she had her own reasons for worrying. Like the heart of gold of compassion.

Kiyoko redirected her tall gaze to her bag, now way closer to the ground than her head. "Can you put everything away?"

"You're going to go home like that?!" Yachi did as she was told, but she spent several minutes lamenting Kiyoko's state, telling her she wouldn't be able to fit in her own home anymore, unless she wanted to stay in the castle for a while, and would she like anything else? Yachi was willing to beg her parents.

Kiyoko didn't have a problem with indefinitely being a dragon. She even enjoyed the thought of staying in a castle with Yachi.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N): Not looking for concrit; don't leave any.


End file.
